Help me diagnose an electrical gremlin - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

95WhiteCamry · 06-27-2009, 11:55 PM

Hey guys.

My coupe is starting to give me attitude in the form of an electric gremlin, and after about 2 weeks I still can't pinpoint the problem, let alone even narrow down to what may be the cause. Here are some symptoms:

The very first symptom I noticed is that my stereo powers off and back on sporadically while driving. It's not an aftermarket deck, but an OE scion deck that was plug and play. Sometimes it sounds like a half second glitch with loss of sound and then it's back. On rarer occasions, I can hear a glitch, and then glance at the deck and see it restart. Interestingly enough, all the presets still remain and the CD does not eject ( when you unplug the battery from the car with a CD in, the deck always ejected the CD).

Tonight, I was driving home with the fan on (not ac, just fan on low) and my stereo on, headlights on. When I heard the stereo glitch i noticed loss of all light. My headlights glitched and my dash cluster lights all turned off and back on. That lasted for a split second, but it was definitely surprising and kinda scary, as loss of all lights at night is not on the top of my list. Happened sporadically through the 20 mile drive, about half the time it happened when I wanted to change lanes and turned my turn signals on, but not always.

When it happens in the day, and even tonight, I did not lose any engine power, just all electrical. However, I think, that if all power is lost, shouldn't the engine die out too since there would me a momentary loss of spark too?

At first I thought that this may be a reason when I have a fan or AC on, but in the last few days it happened without it being on. The other day i thought it could be a problem with the unit and drove without it on and it didn't happen. Then I drove for a few days with it on and I had no power glitches so I can't really decide if stereo is an issue or not.

Does anyone have any suggestions of where to potentially start looking? I really really REALLY hate dealing with electrical components, and if this gets more frequent then I'll part the coupe and move on. Regardless of how great it is, if I am having electrical issues, it's not worth dealing with it.

Helpful info may include that I changed out the spark plugs a week ago. Proper gap and all, but I don't recall having any electrical issues before that was done, but I can't relate one to the other. Also, the battery was replaced two years ago.

All if any help is really appreciated, guys!

KevinACrider · 06-28-2009, 12:39 AM

Just to be sure, head to a local Advance Auto or Autozone and have them test the battery and the alternator. I've heard of similar problems coming from faulty batteries and alternators.

Stillrunning · 06-28-2009, 05:57 AM

Find as many engine and body grounds as you can and clean them with wire brush.

DxElite · 06-28-2009, 09:11 AM

It's rare, but it happened to my dad's Highlander Hybrid.
Some animal went under the car into the engine bay and chewed on a wire harness, and with some wires exposed they shorted every now and then causing a few codes and glitches in the system. Since it was under warranty we took it to the dealer 3x to get it looked at and they "fixed" it the first 2 times, but on the 3rd time a master mechanic took a closer look at it and found the damaged harness with some white fur all around it. $350 labor to repair, but after that there were no problems.

Something to consider as a possibility to your problems......

Mike Gerber · 06-28-2009, 11:22 AM

Check the battery terminal conenctions for corrosion. Just to be sure, you may want to remove the terminals and clean the battery posts and the terminal ends. They need to be shinny clean. If the problem still persists, then have the alternator output tested.

Mike

95WhiteCamry · 07-07-2009, 01:02 AM

bringing the thread back to life.

cleaned the battery posts yesterday, cleaned the positive terminal end free of corrosion, replaced the ground terminal end since it had a nasty crack and corrosion.

looked around for various grounds in the engine bay and cleaned those off as well.

problem persists, and now it seems a smidge worse.

Good: no more random loss of electricity, it now only happens when i out extra load.

Bad: aforementioned load. Idling at a red light, stereo off, headlights on, AC off, if i try to raise the window (not lower, raise only) the lights inside and out dim, and if i hold the switch after the window is all the way up, the lights really dim. while driving, if i want to change lanes and turn on the turn signal, loss of power momentarily, same for depressing the brake pedal quickly for a second.

this is becoming annoying. tomorrow i will try to get to an autozone while on break from work and see if they can test the battery and alternator.

anything else i should look at?

96CamrySport · 07-07-2009, 09:40 AM

Sounds like you have a voltage drop somewhere in the system. Replacing the ground terminal was a good move, should improve overall system performance, but to do this kind of testing you need to find a way to stress the system and make it fail while you check various things with a voltmeter to look for lost voltage. This may be a job for a good electrical shop.

#2! · 07-07-2009, 10:54 AM

First thing would be to replace the battery. Just go buy a brand new Interstate Battery to be sure. Poorly manufactured batteries can have or develop inner hairline fractures which heat and vibrations can expand and contract these. They cause the voltage output to be inconstant and eventually and/or sometimes cause the entire electrical system in the car to be an open circuit and your engine will stall. A load test may not always find this to be at fault.
If that's not the cause then at least you can move froward confidently with your troubleshooting.

carsrus · 07-07-2009, 11:07 AM

Yeah it sounds like an alternator not putting out enough juice. Or a bad battery and the engines running off only the alternator and cant handle any accessories.

95WhiteCamry · 07-07-2009, 10:53 PM

hmmm, maybe i should just go ahead and put a new battery in. the one i currently have is just 2 years old though, and has approximately 29k miles. I didn't get a chance to go and have that or the alternator tested yet though, but from what it sounds like, it may not hurt to change the battery while i'm at it.

i'll try to go to the shop and have them test the output of the alternator by the end of the week.
thanks for the help thus far.

Mike Gerber · 07-08-2009, 11:34 AM

Don't replace the battery yet, have the charging system checked first. Many auto parts stores will check the battery and charging system for free if the car is drivable. Call around to a few auto parts stores in your area and ask if they offer this free service.

Mike

frenum49 · 07-08-2009, 12:17 PM

Start the engine up and turn on your stereo, headlights etc. Get under the hood and wiggle the connections going to your alternator. Loosen the bolts holding your fuse block and wiggle those wires as well trying to get the anomaly to reoccur. Inspect the wires into the bottom of the fuse block for animal damage from chewing off the insulation of the wires. I see this all the time here in Minnesota. Especially in winter. If you cant find anything here go inside and thump the dash a few times around the radio and on the dash cover and wiggle some of the wires around the back of the interior fuse block. Still nothing? have a shop check out the voltage regulator on your alternator. However if your battery light does not come on when the problem occurs it is probably not the problem. With the car still running thump on the computer and body control module a few times with a screwdriver handle. Not too hard!!

Targis34 · 07-27-2009, 08:39 PM

Don't forget to check the ignition key. I had a car that would lose all power and all it was , was the key wasn't sitting in the right location in the turn. It wasn't getting all the way back to run after a start. My kid noticed it...he's a menace, and touched the key and it happened. Really flukey!!

95WhiteCamry · 07-27-2009, 08:50 PM

in light of the thread resurrection, here's an update:
The problem has been reduced to about half time as compared to all the time, but it's there nonetheless. Here's what I did to help mitigate it:

Replaced ground wires from the battery to chassis and engine. The wires were corroded beyond belief, and I thought it would have fixed the problem as a whole. It did, for about 3 days in which it never occured. Day 4 we're back to square 1, however not as often.

Albeit it doesn't happen all the time, I would still like to limit it to none. The battery checked out at a good 13.4 volts with the engine off, and the guy who checked the alternator said it's good.

Any other suggestions?

Zviator · 07-28-2009, 02:08 PM

For an old car, when ignition key hole get dirty, it might not fire up even if the battery is good. You dont seem to have that problem.

The engine keep running despite the lost of electrical, so it's not the alternator.

I'm thinking more on the battery but u said it's good, so I would keep checking up on the connection wires. Remember to tight down both the battery terminals.

At the moment, u can also do a simple big 3 upgrade Pic of my BIg3 upgrade